Unearthed Arcana

Unearthed Arcana is back with an article from WotC's Jeremy Crawford and Ben Petrisor called Sidekicks! "If you’ve ever wanted an animal, a town guard, or another creature to join you on your adventures, this month’s Unearthed Arcana is for you. It gives you a straightforward way to turn a creature into your sidekick and have that companion level up with you." &nbsp...READ MORE

This month's Unearthed Arcana, from WotC, is all about sailors! "Ships, officers, crew, and hazards on the high seas—those are the focus of this month’s Unearthed Arcana." It's a 9-page PDF with ship stat blocks form airships to galleys, information of crews, and rules for sea travel and hazards. There's also information on owning and managing your ship! &nbsp...READ MORE

There's a new Unearthed Arcana up from Keith Baker, Ruty Rutenberg, and Ben Petrisor -- "This month's Unearthed Arcana looks at the magic items that are part of everyday life in the world of Eberron. Arcane focuses, enchanted clothing, warforged components, and more are all common sights for the citizens of the Five Nations." &nbsp...READ MORE

This month's Unearthed Arcana, by Keith Baker, Ruty Rutenberg, and Ben Petrisor, features Dragonmarks! "This month, we explore how to make a character who bears a dragonmark, a mystic sigil that appears on the skin. The mark is a source of magical power and enhances the bearer’s ability to perform certain tasks. In the world of Eberron, each mark is tied to specific bloodlines. The families that carry these marks joined together to form the Dragonmarked Houses, powerful forces that dominate different industries. Even though these marks are associated with Eberron, you could explore using them in other worlds as well."

This month's Unearthed Arcana, by James Wyatt, introduces four new Ravnica player races! "A group of races from the world of Ravnica have arrived in Unearthed Arcana: loxodons, Simic hybrids, vedalken, and viashino. While native to Ravnica, these folk could potentially be used in any D&D world. They are destined for the upcoming book Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica, out this November. Now is your chance to help shape their final forms!" &nbsp...READ MORE

This month's Unearthed Arcana is here! "In the age of myth, giants bestowed magical blessings upon smaller folk whom they especially favored. Now sorcerers can playtest descendants of those folk, using the Giant Soul subclass." &nbsp...READ MORE

Centaurs and Minotaurs are the topics of this month's Unearthed Arcana!Centaurs gallop into Unearthed Arcana this month—a playtest option for when you choose your character’s race. Another type of character from Greek myth joins them: minotaurs. We first showed off minotaurs in a 2015 installment of Unearthed Arcana, and we present revised versions of their traits today.
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This month's Unearthed Arcana, from WotC's Jeremy Crawford and Mike Mearls, presents a new cleric domain for playtesting: the Order Domain. "The Order domain represents discipline, as well as service to a society or an institution, whether that service is rendered in obedience to or enforcement of the law—civil, religious, or both. Gods on many worlds grant access to this domain, including Bane, Tyr, Majere, Erathis, Pholtus, Wee Jas, Aureon, Maglubiyet, Nuada, Athena, Anubis, Forseti, and Asmodeus." &nbsp...READ MORE

It's been a while, but there's a new Unearthed Arcana from WotC's Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford. There are three new subclasses to playtest, including the Druid Circle of Spores; the Fighter Brute; and the Wizard School of Invention.
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This month's Unearthed Arcana article gives us four new elf subraces to playtest. "After the positive response to the eladrin a couple of months ago in Unearthed Arcana, we decided to explore four more elf subraces: avariel (winged elves), grugach (the wild elves of Greyhawk), sea elves, and shadar-kai (deathly servants of the Raven Queen)."
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August's Unearthed Arcana, from WotC's Mike Mearls, offers a new experience point system based on D&D's "three pillars" - combat, exploration, and social interaction. "With all three pillars in mind, Mike Mearls presents an alternative system for awarding experience points, offering a streamlined XP process based in equal part on defeating monsters, exploring dangerous sites to claim the magic and wealth found there, and interacting with NPCs to shape the flow of the campaign." &nbsp...READ MORE

The latest Unearthed Arcana by WotCs Mearls is up. "Mike Mearls introduces an alternative initiative system, inspired by AD&D and the journey to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin—the birthplace of D&D—for Gary Con 2017. While the initiative rules in fifth edition D&D are great for keeping the action moving and being easy to use at the table, the Greyhawk initiative variant takes a different approach. These rules add complexity, but with the goal of introducing more drama to combat." &nbsp...READ MORE

Last week, we reached the end of a series of weekly Unearthed Arcana installments, which came out for several months. Today Unearthed Arcana returns to being monthly, appearing on the first or second Monday of a month. To kick things off, we look back at five of the subclasses from the recent series: the barbarian’s Path of the Ancestral Guardian, the bard’s College of Swords, the fighter’s Arcane Archer, the monk’s Way of the Kensei, and the sorcerer’s Favored Soul. &nbsp...READ MORE

This week's Unearthed Arcana is another collection of new feats. "This document introduces new feats to playtest. As explained in chapter 6 of the Player’s Handbook, feats, like multiclassing, are an optional part of the game, usable only if your DM permits them. These feats don’t assume that multiclassing is used in a campaign, and they don’t assume the existence of the skill feats that were released in a previous installment of Unearthed Arcana. Each of these feats is associated with a race from the Player’s Handbook." &nbsp...READ MORE

The latest Unearthed Arcana from Jeremy Crawford and again featuring guest writer Robert J. Schwalb introduces a number of feats which make you better at skills. Each increases the skill's primary ability score, doubles your proficiency bonus, and gives you a little bonus ability. "This week we introduce new feats to playtest. Each of these feats makes you better at one of the game’s eighteen skills. We invite you to read them, give them a try in play, and let us know what you think in the survey we release in the next installment of Unearthed Arcana." &nbsp...READ MORE

This week's Unearthed Arcana, with Mike Mearls back after Rob Schwalb's guest spot last week, takes a look at downtime activities. "Sometimes the weeks between adventures are as eventful as the time on an adventure. This installment of Unearthed Arcana explores that in-between time by offering new and revised downtime activities for DMs to playtest in their campaigns."
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This week's Unearthed Arcana (this time by Robert J Schwalb, rather than Mike Mearls, along with Jeremy Crawford) details a section of new cantrips and 1st-level spells. In addition, WotC has announced that UA will be returning to its old monthly schedule, and Jeremy Crawford's Sage Advice column will return -- "For a while now, we’ve been releasing Unearthed Arcana multiple times a month as part of a special series of articles. That series wraps up at the end of April 2017. After that, we’ll return to releasing Unearthed Arcana once, sometimes twice, a month, and the Sage Advice column will return." &nbsp...READ MORE

Unearthed Arcana is back, and this week it's a trio of subclasses covering the monk, the ranger, and the paladin. "Three classes each receive a playtest option this week. The monk gets the Way of the Drunken Master. The paladin gets the Oath of Redemption. And the ranger gets the Monster Slayer, a reimagining of the Monster Hunter that we previously released for the fighter." &nbsp...READ MORE

Reviews

Tired of all the fantasy role-playing games with a grim and dark palette? Well, Renegade Studios delivers a rules light system with a many-layered setting for players seeking out something brighter. Join the ranks of the Skyborn, with Overlight.

If getting your whole group together to play during December is a challenge, a holiday one-shot might be a perfect solution, and the official D&D Adventurer's League module Winter's Splendor by Ashley Warren is a great option. Even better, if you're running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, it's a good side adventure any time of the year.

Do you want to experience the danger a teenager trapped in a monster haunted town in the 1980s faces? Do you want to fight back against the monsters by break dancing and head banging using old school D&D derived rules? Then Dark Places & Demogorgons might be the RPG you are looking for.